Keeping a Prayer Journal for Spiritual Growth

Dear Friends,

I am so excited for the final part of the healthy habits series about keeping a prayer journal for spiritual growth. Having a personal relationship with God is so important to our spiritual health as well as our overall health. A key element of any relationship is communication. In the last post I wrote about a way that God communicates with you; you reading the Bible which is appropriately called His Word. One of the ways that you can communicate with God is through prayer. Consistent communication between you and God will deepen your relationship with Him and help you grow spiritually.

Keeping a prayer journal can help us track our communication with God to see how we are growing in our faith by the things we pray about. As we grow in our faith we strive to be more like Jesus Christ, and that change will be reflected in our prayers. As we grow in our faith in the beginning we might pray about being more selfless and to love more. As time goes on we might notice that the things we are praying about reflect how much more selfless and loving we are becoming. First let’s talk about why praying is a good healthy habit to practice. Then we’ll talk about what prayer is and how to pray, which will give us an idea of what prayers we are writing down in our journal.

Studies have shown that believing in God and praying makes you less anxious, less stressed, and less depressed. This seems to be because you don’t feel alone and all the pressure and worry of the world doesn’t feel so heavy. We are supposed to give all of our worries to God through prayer. A great way to start praying daily and make prayer a habit is to pray whenever you are anxious or stressed about something. We all feel like things are weighing heavily on us at some point every day so make it a habit to start praying when you feel bad, tell God how you feel and allow Him to lift that weight off of you. Pray when good things happen too, even if it is just a quick ‘thank you God.’

The Bible tells us to “pray without ceasing” in Thessalonians 5:17. That sounds to me like we should be in constant intimate communication with God. When we read the Bible we have faith that God is leading us to the passage, and interpretation of that passage, that we need in that moment. Praying to God is a way to communicate what it is you want to learn about or seek His advice for. In Matthew 6:8 Jesus tells His disciples that God knows what you need before you ask for it. It is important to remember though that God is not a genie that grants your wishes, and sometimes His answers to your prayers will not necessarily be what you are hoping for. For example, if you pray to pick the winning lottery numbers or for your business to take off and grow exponentially immediately, God’s answer to those prayers might be no to the lottery or not right now to the business.

Praying to God is for you to have a personal relationship with Him. It is not for show so that you can appear more righteous, more often than not it is quiet and intimate, for God to hear only. God commands this in Matthew 6:5-8 when Jesus is teaching His disciples how to pray. Consider your prayers to be an ongoing conversation with God throughout your day.

Of course there will be times when you can and should pray aloud with and for others. Praying aloud can be a bit uncomfortable at first but I think it is because prayer is so intimate. To make praying aloud more comfortable just do it more often. Really the only thing to do is to do it more in appropriate settings. You can offer to say grace before a meal with family or friends, you can add to a group prayer at a small group or Bible study, or you can pray aloud with your spouse or children before bed.

Try starting or ending your day with a little bit of time just spent praying to God. Thank Him for the good and ask for help or guidance for the bad. Make this time a part of your morning or evening routine. During this time start keeping a journal listing what you prayed about. Leave a little bit of space below each entry so you can read through your prayers occasionally and write down if they were answered and how. Over time you will start to see changes in what you prayed for and how you prayed, this is where you will be able to keep track of and recognize your spiritual growth, and hopefully your deepening relationship with God. You might notice seasons and recognize patterns of things that draw you closer to God and things that cause you to pull away from God. This insight can be used to increase your spiritual growth by focusing on ways to maintain your relationship with God.

I hope you are encouraged to pray more and keep a prayer journal to continue to increase your spiritual growth and deepen your relationship with God. I hope you enjoyed the healthy habits series as much as I did. Until next time…

Your Friend,

Amanda